My project explored the under-appreciated sense of touch! I provided a sample of contrasting textures to feel while associated animations play on the screen that show what that material reminds me of. For example, the soft feeling of the cotton ball reminds me of a cat’s fur. 🙂
For my animations, I chose to use Wick editor! Although it was super easy to use, in hindsight I wish I had done the art in a more advanced program just so that it would be easier to make more elaborate drawings.
This is the input prototype. To be honest, it’s more finnicky than I would like — the leaves dry out and I have to replace them often, and the cloth and cotton balls need to be spritzed with water to stay conductive. But this was super interesting to do and really neat when I got it working!!
Artist Question: How are people doing looping idles without messing up the inputs? I haven’t been able to do it successfully without just making the idle a long video and hoping it just does not play to the end.
I find the concept very interesting. I feel that many people don’t pay full attention to how important they are. For your issue with looping idle states, I put my animations into Max and only triggered the animations when the interaction took place. Once the animation ended, there would be a bang to trigger the “idle” state to appear. Did you use the “Tween” frame in the Wick Editor? One opinion I have is that the eyes in the idle frame makes the message appear more around the idea of sight, rather than touch.
I did the same thing for my Max animations as well! I just didn’t know how to make the idle state loop if there were no interactions — if I made the end of the idle trigger idle state it prevented the interaction animations from displaying 🙁
I did use the tween in Wick editor for the bee animation!
Your project is so eyecatching! especially with the cute animations 🙂
I have an opinion based on sound. Adding some sound effects such as a cool breeze for the coat scene, or a cat purring for the cotton balls would really make me feel like I’m interacting with the piece on another level
Did you hide the wires underneath the four containers with the objects covered in aluminum?
Yep! The wires are connected on the bottom to the aluminum cups.
The input looks lovely. Opinion: The idle animation being closed eyes is a nice touch and coherent with the narrative of seeing a memory.
A very nice piece, and very well organized. Even the small details are very nice, like the decoration of the tactile bowls, the use of foil to ensure conductivity, and the start contrast between the idle and active animations. I would like to ask a question about one particular design. Specifically, why is the scarf wearing man looking so angry? I’m sure it’s unintentional, but the way I see the piece the guy looks like he’s scowling. Regardless of that minor detail, This project shines with organization and an eye for detail.
Haha yeah that was unintentional — I probably should have used a thinner brush size for higher fidelity
This piece is very cohesive, physically and digitally. I noticed the nice borders around the materials that makes the physical piece so cohesive. Opinion: on the black and white eyes, you could include some hands as well to push the theme of touch more.
I like the way you decorate the inputs. They look very cute and elegant to me. For the idle part, I recommend getting some help during the office hour on Wednesday or let professor take a look of your max code on discord. My question is: is there any special meanings behind each animation?
Each animation is connected to a memory of mine that I associate with each feeling.
I have not finished my project yet so I can not answer this question. The interface and animations are calming. Why did you choose four different touch-triggered animations, why not three, or five? The interface and idle animation are the most elegant parts of the project, in my opinion. The project itself is great, and all facets of it, but the interface and idle animation are my favorites.
I chose four because I thought that amount would fit well for the inputs and look cohesive put together. (I probably could have also done 6 but I didn’t know if I would have time to animate 2 more scenes.)
For the looping problem you need to either put it on loop in Max or have the first frame and last frame be the same, I hope this answered your question but I might have interpreted the problem wrong. I really like the design of your holders, really reminds me of gem stones.
I really like the style of your input sensors. The line art frames contrast well with the very real feelings associated with each of the inputs.
Your design for the physical interactivity portion of the project suits your theme really well! Each individual vessel is nicely designed and easily allows you to include as many sensations as you want.